Open Skies EO has not gotten off the ground!

Last Monday, the Department of Tourism (DoT) held a road show on Executive Order No. 29 a.k.a. Open Skies Policy at the Grand Hotel in Cebu City. They had only one resource speaker, Atty. Jose Claro S. Tesoro who tried to sell this outdated idea called Open Skies Policy. In the end, we learned that this is not really a fully opened Open Skies policy as the EO still features a Philippine Air Negotiating Panel. What do we need to negotiate if we open our skies already huh?

The proponents for the Open Skies policy insist that when we embrace it, there will be a flood of foreign airlines coming to the country. Hence I asked a simple question, “How many airlines have come to the Philippines since EO No. 29 was signed by the President?” Atty. Tesoro told me that Tiger Air was going to fly from Singapore to Davao. But I have previous knowledge that this was planned during the time of President GMA.

I pressed on that the Open Skies Policy was a failure in the sense that for the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) there were 70 entitlements given to foreign airlines, but they never came. Atty. Tesoro’s reply was, we did not do enough to promote Cebu to those airlines. That reply begs the question as to who should promote Cebu? Well, years ago during the dark years of Martial Law, Cebu did promote itself as “An Island in the Pacific” and it was a great hit as Japanese tourists came to Cebu on chartered flights. But since the return to democracy, I thought that promoting the Philippines is the job of the DOT? I hope we’re not getting confusing signals here. This is why I believe that the Open Skies Policy hasn’t lifted off.

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On his first day on the job as head of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) Ruffy Biazon has his work cut out for him with so many missing container vans and cars because of the criminal syndicates having a stranglehold on this graft-ridden agency through the many decades under many Presidents. These syndicates have a well-oiled machinery, I gathered from certain reports that they even have their own tabloid newspapers and a bevy of reporters, which gave them the tag “fake journalists.”

Of course, these fake journalists cry out freedom of the Press as their defense. But we know the drill, why they are having newsletters for the Bureau of Customs, while their journalists do not cover the so many other agencies in government that suffer through a lack of publicity? At this point, we are four-square behind Ruffy Biazon in this campaign to cleanse the BOC and renew its tattered and ugly image. I wish him all the luck!

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Our fellow STAR columnist Boo Chanco’s column “Demand and Supply” last Monday hit the nail on the head when he asked “Land registration system is failing?” Of course he is referring to the problems on land registration in Metro Manila, which has become a nationwide epidemic, especially in places like Mactan Island where criminal syndicates with connections to unscrupulous officials in the Registry of Deeds have been making a killing for decades. This is one phase of the corruption that seems untouched or unheard of in the “Daang Matuwid” of the Aquino government.

A case in point is a close friend of mine, a well-known Filipino doctor of medicine practicing in the United States who earned his life savings for many years and decided to retire in Cebu. A few months ago, a criminal syndicate sold him a property that later turned out to be a fake title. He paid P25 million for that property because the Register of Deeds personally assured him that the title was above board. Weeks later, he found out that it was all a fake and that he’s been had.

I told my friend to file criminal cases, but in this day and age of cheap guns-for-hire and a motorcycle, he admitted to me that he is running scared that he just might be targeted by those criminals that already took his hard earned money. You want more? There is even a criminal syndicate running amok in Cebu that has connections even with high ranking officials in the Judiciary.

A few weeks ago, a group of Congressmen came to Cebu to bat for the economic amendments of the 1987 Constitution as a means to entice foreign investors to put their money in the Philippines. If and when that happens, foreigners can now own land in this country.

While that should be good news for our country, the bad news is these foreigners would be easy prey for those criminal syndicates who are so well-entrenched because of their connections to those so-called “Rogues in Robes” many of whom are still active in the bench. Perhaps the Supreme Court does something of a lifestyle check in order to weed those people who dishonor our Judiciary. So when will we see Senate investigations on these cases?

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